I don't think you can include the jokes either. The jokes are not just meant to be funny to the audience, in fact I'd say that's not even the primary goal of the jokes. It's to show not only the different type of soldier, but also the relationship between Hawkins and Billy. Then you get the pay off when Billy actually likes one.

It's called character building, it also makes us feel more sorry for Hawkins when he gets diced up.

There's also the tonal balance of the film. It's a big bad ass 80's action shooter, so it works and it kinda still works in movies like the expendables ( although they go to far with it IMO).

The movie starts as an action romp. When Hawkins dies pretty much any sense of humour is sapped out of the film in favor of a constant tension that ramps up across the final act.

The point is that the first Predator film did not make goofy comedy takes. It has some funny one liners and a couple jokes, but it stays well clear of falling into farce. It's all about injecting levity into a tense scenario.

The minigun isn't really that funny. It's ludicrously over the top, but the general reaction is usually "f**k yeah!" rather than people getting torn out of the film splitting their sides with laughter.

I saw Predator in a packed cinema just a while back, and the place roared with laughter whenever that thing was fired on-screen.

Other big belly-laughs I can remember off the top of my head included Dutch and Dillon's "handshake", most of the shootout in the jungle camp, Dillon stripping off and joining in with the sweaty muscle tree-hauling and Dutch screaming into the jungle to get ol' Pred's attention.

The movie starts as an action romp. When Hawkins dies pretty much any sense of humour is sapped out of the film in favor of a constant tension that ramps up across the final act.

The point is that the first Predator film did not make goofy comedy takes. It has some funny one liners and a couple jokes, but it stays well clear of falling into farce. It's all about injecting levity into a tense scenario.

That said, this is very true. Most of the silly stuff is in the first act. But there are definitely a lot of intentionally funny things in there.

You guys remember the mini gun carried a "purpose" for the movie, it was used in a specific scene to create a scenario that really turned the tide (ultimately created more build) in the movie for the audience and the team, that what they were dealing with wasn't normal.

It seems at this point "humor" is an opinion based on over-analytical pickiness towards meaningless aspects of film.

Good news is Black as confirmed in "Collider" that the humor won't be too much as it's not meant to be a "comedy" of any sort:

“I think the reason there’s a lasting quality that the original movie has that’s due I think, in part to the fact that it was made before it was so easy to just do a bunch of CGI effects and before video games had taken hold as well. So, there was a more visceral kind of war movie thriller-esque quality to the material.

It [The Predator] is ultimately gonna be a thriller. It’s not gonna be a comedy. It’s an R-rated movie and it’s supposed to be a kind of harrowing experience. I think it goes to what Fred and I are very familiar with, which is, if you told me to write a comedy I’d be helpless, but if you say write a thriller and put some jokes in it, then fine. Then, I don’t have to worry… it’s that sort of combination and tone shuffling that becomes at once the juggling act and also the challenge, but the joy too of what we’re trying to do.”

The minigun isn't really that funny. It's ludicrously over the top, but the general reaction is usually "f**k yeah!" rather than people getting torn out of the film splitting their sides with laughter.

I saw Predator in a packed cinema just a while back, and the place roared with laughter whenever that thing was fired on-screen.

The minigun isn't really that funny. It's ludicrously over the top, but the general reaction is usually "f**k yeah!" rather than people getting torn out of the film splitting their sides with laughter.

I saw Predator in a packed cinema just a while back, and the place roared with laughter whenever that thing was fired on-screen.

Other big belly-laughs I can remember off the top of my head included Dutch and Dillon's "handshake", most of the shootout in the jungle camp, Dillon stripping off and joining in with the sweaty muscle tree-hauling and Dutch screaming into the jungle to get ol' Pred's attention.

Right- so 30 some years later....you can look back and see the "funny" aspects of the 80's machismo playing out (as with most movies in that era). At the time tho, AND upon very first watch, wasn't the case at all.

I can’t speak to if the Pentagon was thinking about developing a portable handheld M134 in the 80’s. But, I’m pretty confident in saying that was not the reason for it’s inclusion in the first film. However, I’m open to being corrected.

Maybe not the M134, but they were very interested in turning the minigun concept into a portable platform. I do remember them mentioning this only briefly in one of the BTS videos for Predator. Jesse Ventura talks about it for a second.

It just never worked out. Trying to shrink things down to make it practical gutted the overwhelming fire power, and besides the amount of fire power was actually... ultimately wasteful.

Though they did eventually, decades later, pull it off with the XM556.

Again watching those movies in the year 2018. Is a completely different circumstance of study and analysis.

I honestly cannot accept that anyone ever thought Commando was a serious movie...

I watched 3 minutes of it on tv once, and had to change the channel. It was just too much. As for the modern analysis angle, I think films like Predator would be the main example for this type of thing. Something that was initially meant to be, and was seen as scary or thrilling.

On the whole though, I think ultimately it’s gonna come down to what Hicks and Co. said on the Podcast. Execution, Execution, Execution.

If Black can’t manage the jokes while juggling the suspense, horror and action. Then it’s not gonna be pretty.

On the flip side of that, if he can utilize the jokes in a way that doesn’t distract your attention from the film itself. Well, he’ll have overcome a very big hurdle, that allot of fans fear he’s incapable of.